


But Feeling is Indelible

by luxover



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-30 02:06:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10866750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxover/pseuds/luxover
Summary: Danny retires and moves back to Philly. Or, as Claude thinks of it, Danny retires and moves backhome.





	But Feeling is Indelible

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [Tumblr prompt](http://luxover.tumblr.com/post/160288070662/ooohhh-if-youre-still-taking-ficlet-prompts-i) where anon asked for "some briouxs being grossly domestic together (maybe post-danny's retirement & still adjusting to living together again?)"
> 
> Title snagged from Ted Kooser's poem, [A Map of the World](http://luxover.tumblr.com/post/160491815247/100)

Danny retires and moves back to Philly. Or, as Claude thinks of it, Danny retires and moves back _home_. Because that’s what it is, for them and for the boys. Home is wherever they’re all together, the two of them and the three of their kids, Claude starting in on making pancakes while Danny walks around the kitchen in shorts and socked feet, setting the table.

“Did you guys move the plates or am I going crazy?” Danny asks after opening almost every cabinet, and Claude wants to laugh, not because it’s funny but because he’s glad to have Danny back.

“Going crazy, probably,” he says instead, even though the whole kitchen has been re-done in the time Danny’s been gone. They got new cabinets and new tile, and everything’s been moved around. Claude’s still opening the wrong drawer looking for Ziplock bags, and he doesn’t even have the excuse of having been away.

“I’d help but you need something to do with your time now that you’re a retired old man,” Caelan calls out from where he is, flopped on a couch on the other side of the breakfast bar, texting his girlfriend.

“Yeah,” Carson agrees. “Like a purpose in life.”

“A _purpose in life?_ ” Danny asks incredulously. “I’ve been retired a _week_.”

“And I’ve been keeping him pretty busy, too,” Claude says, thinking about how Danny’s taken over driving Cam to practices and rushing textbooks over to the high school when Carson forgets them. He only realizes how it sounds when Danny laughs, embarrassed, and the boys groan.

“That’s gross,” Cam says. “I don’t even want to know what you mean by that.”

“You’re _fourteen_ ,” Caelan points out. “You don’t _get_ to know what he means by that.”

Carson points out, “I know what he means by that,” and Cam reaches over, shoves him off the barstool. 

“Shut up,” Cam says. “Of course I _know_. That’s not what I _meant_.” His face is just barely red, but Claude still decides to step in and put a stop to World War III before it even begins.

“I just meant that he’s got a lot of chores to make up for,” Claude announces, and then he says to Cam, “Hey, bud, help me out and grab the chocolate chips? And blueberries?”

Cam slides off his barstool and says, “Yeah, okay,” and once he’s moving, Danny spreads the love and makes the other two help pour juice.

Claude starts spooning the batter out once the griddle is hot, and sprinkles the toppings on pretty liberally. Zoey waddles over to mooch, so he gives her a blueberry because he’s easy, and grabs a handful of chocolate chips for himself. Off to the side, Danny tells Caelan to grab the silverware, and Cam asks if they need napkins or if they can just use paper towels because he doesn’t want to go to the garage to grab a new pack.

When the pancakes are halfway there, Claude digs in the nearest drawer for a spatula. The only one he can find is shaped like a yellow smiley face, and Claude knows it flips pancakes for shit, but the boys gave it to him on the first Father’s Day that they considered him to be one, and so Claude loves it.

An arm slides around his middle as he’s flipping, and Danny hooks his chin over Claude’s shoulder. He grabs a blueberry to eat with his free hand and looks down at the griddle.

“So that’s how it’s done,” he says.

“All in the wrist,” Claude tells him, flipping the last few. “You taking notes? Gonna start cooking now?”

“Mm,” Danny says. “Think we both know that’d be a disaster.”

Claude laughs a little under his breath, and Danny’s hand flattens out on Claude’s stomach, his thumb casually brushing back and forth over Claude’s t-shirt. It’s nice, Claude thinks. If the boys weren’t here, Claude would probably turn around to kiss Danny and slip his hand into Danny’s shorts, but the boys _are_ here, and that’s nice too. Push comes to shove, Claude thinks he might even pick this over the sex, just because they won’t have it for much longer. Danny’s back, but the boys’ll move out eventually, and then it’ll be just Claude, and just Danny. They can fuck like crazy then.

“Hey,” Danny says quietly. He kisses Claude just below his ear. “Thank you.”

And Claude wonders what he even means by that, whether it’s a _thank you_ for cooking, or a _thank you_ for helping raise his kids, or even just a _thank you_ for being there, for waiting out the rest of Danny’s career, for staying.

Claude figures it doesn’t really matter either way. He wonders if he ever even had a choice, or if the Briouxs were fated from the moment he stepped through the doorway. He tries to imagine a life without them, without lazy street hockey Sundays, without his games and the boys’ homework, without the creases at the corners of Danny’s eyes as he laughs. Claude wonders who else he could’ve fallen in love with, wonders if there even _is_ anyone else, and if he’d even want there to be.

Probably not, Claude thinks, and tells Danny, “Anytime.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] But Feeling is Indelible](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13093941) by [frecklebombfic (frecklebomb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklebomb/pseuds/frecklebombfic)




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